The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-11-29

beef from poorly fattened common cattle
With little care there can be selected from
these grade cattle cows that win give as much
and as rich milk as the average jersey, so that
the farmer realizes both from his milk and his
beer. With ordinary good pasturagelit costs no
more to keep and fatten these cattle than it
does common Scrubs which at three wears
Old cannot be made to weigh more than half as
much, and whose beef always brings lower
pIce. A few figures will more clearly show
the, difference in the matter of profit. A.
grade steer twenty-four months old will weigh
loo pounds and brings six cents per pound
orSI2. A scrub steer thirty-six months old
will weigh 200 pounds and brings five cents
per pound, or 1897. Here is loss of year
and $37. Can you see it now?
AS have shown, the beef cattle of Ohio are
OF graded stock, nothing more than cross of
good imported stock upon the common cattle
OF the country. 1 can remember WELL what
that common stock was--littIe lean sgime-
backs scrawny, big-boned brindles, white,
spotted ndspeckled, that could run like a
deer and gave less milk than goat. can al
so remember when the neighbors thought my
rather was crazy, because he paid fifty dollars
for siX-weekS-old Durham bull calf. Those
neighbors were very much like some Georgia
farmers know, and yet at the time they
represented great majority of the Ohio
farmers.
Now, what Ohio farmers have done Georgia
farmers can do, and do it in the same Way. 1t
need not involve much cost, but il will fake a
little care. Tho first thing is to buy Il good
pull, a Durham or Devon. Don't take tho
owners word that he is full-blood or thorough
bred, Tor many u one has been sold for full
blood that was only a grade, but make him
furnish n registered pedigree. Such a bull
will cost some money, it is true, but all your
efforts at Improvement depend upon him, and
II you mistake at the first that mistake will re-
peat itself and grow greater every year. A
few dollars saved in the outset will be MANY
dollars short i'll the outcome. If you cannot
afford to purchase good bull alone, get some
OF your neighbors to 80 in with you. Tho diff
ference between four high grade steers and
four common steers will more than nav
for good young bull. Keep III mind that
grade bulls are of little account, rs there is no
uniformity in their offspring. After YOU have
secured your bull, your herd will be vastly
improved by the first cross, and soon, by con-
tlnulng to reject all hefers that go back in
quality to some scrub ancestor, the stock will
not only be moro uniform, but you will have
secured grade that will increase III value and
satisfaction each year. BY this crossing you
secure not only the beef-produciug qualities of
the sire, but the hardness of the dam. 1t was
by this crossing that the farmers of the north
have secured q grade of beef cattle that has
made them market not only in every section
of this country but in Europe. With all their
facilities for raising beef cheaply, the owners
of the big cattle ranches in Texas found it
necessary to cross their native cattle with the
sh0rthorns, so as to secure finer beef
But don't forget to remember that first OF
all, and above all, cattle raising means grass.
had intended to say something about hogs
and sheep in this letter, but want of space
compels me to defer it to my next. In the
meantime you can do little figuring on
horses and cattle. w. l., GLEssNER,